Bank of Italy backs tokenised SEPA payments as key to modernizing EU finance

The Bank of Italy is urging European institutions to explore a tokenised extension of SEPA, arguing it could be central to modernizing EU payments infrastructure, supporting digital asset markets, and preserving the role of central bank money in an increasingly tokenized financial system. Deputy Governor Chiara Scotti told a conference in Milan that, as tokenization gains importance, policymakers should consider how the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) – currently the core scheme for euro credit transfers and direct debits across Europe – could evolve to support tokenised payments on distributed ledger technology (DLT). SEPA today allows citizens, companies and public bodies in participating countries to make euro payments with common rules and standards, enabling cross-border euro transfers to function much like domestic ones. Scotti framed a tokenised SEPA as an “important area for reflection,” suggesting that tokenised bank deposits and other digital assets should be able to settle in a harmonised, euro-denominated framework that retains central bank money as an anchor for financial stability. This aligns with ongoing European Central Bank experiments such as the Pontem/Pontes and Appia projects, which aim to link blockchain platforms with central bank settlement systems so that tokenised assets can be settled safely in central bank money. The push reflects broader European concerns that, without public-sector backed infrastructure for tokenised payments, market activity could migrate to private stablecoins or non-EU platforms, potentially weakening the euro’s role and fragmenting payment systems. A tokenised SEPA model is presented as a way to keep EU payments competitive and interoperable while integrating DLT, though Scotti’s remarks stop short of a concrete proposal or timeline and instead call for EU-wide evaluation and debate on design, risks, and regulatory treatment.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

More coverage

• Italy central bank backs review of tokenised SEPA payments (dig.watch)
• Bank of Italy Urges EU to Consider Tokenised SEPA Payments System (globalbankingandfinance.com)
• SEPA - Banca d'Italia (bancaditalia.it)
• Europe should weigh tokenized SEPA payments, Bank of Italy ... (tradingview.com)

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